@Reg thx!
Thanks for the reminder! Pioneer missions were a bit before my time. Although i heard of them this article summed it up with more information than I had before. Of to fill the gaps now, like this source.
It is 50 years since Pioneer 10, NASA's first all-nuclear electrical powered spacecraft, got up close and personal with our solar system's largest planet, Jupiter. Pioneer 10, the first of NASA's probes into the outer solar system, was launched from Cape Canaveral on March 3, 1972. The spacecraft was powered by radioisotope …
Thanks for the reminder! Pioneer missions were a bit before my time. Although i heard of them this article summed it up with more information than I had before. Of to fill the gaps now, like this source.
And we kind of forgot about it until it reached Jupiter almost 2 years later and delivered the most stunning images we had ever seen. I seem to remember a copy of New Scientist with about half devoted to the probe and especially the pictures.
And not forgetting Pioneer 11, which trailed Pioneer 10 by a year to Jupiter and went on to Saturn in 1979 delivering even more awesome images.
It was a truly wondrous time for space and lunar exploration.
AC due to my ancientness, vanity and grumpitude - though you can do the maths!
I was hooked by the Apollo programme, nagged my parent's to allow me to see Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon live (they allowed it, bless them), and later built my own Newtonian telescope (as a teenager). One of the most awesome sights is always Jupiter wit its ever-changing cloud belts, and the dance of the Galilean moons. I followed the Pioneer, Viking and Voyager programmes avidly, and now have the privilege of contributing to data analysis of EUCLID images. Sheer bliss.
>to allow me to see Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon live
Many parents today are afraid to let their children play outside, much less travel to the Moon to watch a landing take place.
I think one of the best things about NASA is all those amazing photos are in the public domain.
Back in the 80's I wrote to NASA to ask for some information about the Space Shuttle for a school project, I remember I just put NASA on the envelope with an airmail stamp.
I didn't expect a response, especially as I'm in the UK, but a few weeks later I got a 2 inch thick package through the post, it was stuffed with photos and documentation about the Space Shuttle and its missions, it even had about 50 pages detailing the Challenger disaster. That lot made for the best school project I ever did.